Just some general reference for myself...

Put the plane in a vertical dive and adjust elevator trim so it stays vertical, in speed mode.

Adjust the elevator up from there the smallest increment you can get your transmitter to achieve where you can see the elevator has moved upwards. That will likely be through menu setting rather than trim tabs.

Now fly it level, and adjust CG to achieve appropriate level flight at appropriate speed, without adjusting the elevator. For speed mode, appropriate speed in this case is perhaps a meter per second faster than your normal cruise mode, at most.

Chances are now that the CG is a hair in front of neutral. That's about as far back as you'd ever want to fly it.

Note, this method of adjusting for most rearward applicable CG is likely only approximately valid for wings which achieve full laminar flow in speed mode (Zone-V2 for instance is one such wing). The real advantage of this method is it gets you close very quickly, as it separates out trim from CG, making it less confusing.

In my experience, you can detect most forward applicable CG by gradually increasing nose weight and retrimming for the same airspeed each time. Try some tight thermal turns. When the CG gets too far forwards, the plane starts to feel pretty dead. Move the CG back a bit and it gets lively again. You don't want it dead.

*** Useful CG range is going to depend on turbulence level. The degree of turbulence in the air affects the air flow over the wing which will move the neutral point a little. So you should test in good AND bad air to find the best compromise for you and your plane. This will also tell you if you need to move the CG when air conditions change.

Kaizen – loosely translated – is the process of continuous improvement based on knowledge.

In every process there are:

• Essential value-adding tasks
• Essential non-value-adding tasks
• Wasteful tasks

Often the maximum efficiency improvements come, not from doing the essential tasks faster, but from eliminating wasteful tasks.

The twin cardinal sins of wasteful gliding behavior are:

1. Turning in sink
2. Flying slowly in sink
   
   Add to these:
   
3. Flying through the same (sinky) air multiple times
4. Not centering quickly in a thermal
5. Not staying centered
6. Eking out the last bit of height out of a thermal even though the climb rate has died off
7. Exiting thermals in the wrong direction or at a slow speed

Aim to eradicate your bad decisions by doing post-flight analysis, and the performance improvements should naturally follow.

Direct quote from one of the top pilots at the world champs 2015

1. The third Vector. This is absolutely essential for flying in the wind. It will tell you how big and how far away a thermal is. It is not down the end of the streamer. Learn it, practice it, re-learn it and practice it again, and again and again and again until the penny drops. I had to rearange the vector in my head to make it work for me, so find a way that works for you. Look up Joes video on youtube 'Joe Wurts on soaring'.

2. Iterating the air. You need to be able to look at all he signs (ground, air, plane, competitors, etc) continually (e.g about every 20 seconds) to form a picture in your head of the change is the weather and location and movement of thermals. Reading the air once or twice a flight is not enough. I had to teach myself to be able to centre a thermal while I was feeling the breeze changes, watching the trees, calculating my 3rd vector and updating my brain where the next thermal is, then doing it all again and again and again. Listen to Joe's podcast on Radio CarbonArt's website and use his training suggestions.

Part 2B of this is you need a stable and easy to fly plane. My brain is not big enough to iterate the air and be struggling with a plane that is allover the sky.

3. Plane signs - This is what the air is doing around the plane. Is the plane pulling right or left, or accelerating forward or slowing down. This tells you where the lift is relative to your plane, The...Continue Reading

All Up Weight 9.6oz.

From RCSD 1984-09

My super sweet B3 ...

Obi tails, upgraded tail mount, CR peg, 1 oz ballast setup and JR digitals all around....Continue Reading

3/29/12
Loooooong trim flight !

Launch Low - Fly Lower (1 min 36 sec)

Advise from PB:

A steamer tied to your tarnsmitter antenna is one of the most valuable aids you can have for reading air.

When returning from downwind, watch your transmitter antenna streamer. When you see it move a few degrees left or right, then make your return trip to that side of the field in hopes of intercepting that thermal that just blew past you and pulled your streamer to the left or right.

When flying in lift downwind, keep an eye on your transmitter antenna streamer. If you are happily in lift but you notice that your streamer has shifted a bit left or right rather than pointing towards you model, then expect that the air you are flying in may drift a bit more left or right, or that your air might begin to fall apart because another thermal has developed to your model's left or right. If your air begins to dissipate, then make a move towards where the wind shifted to. It is common that two thermals will develop close enough to one another that one of the thermals will win and the other will die, simply because there is not enough warm air to feed both. In general, if the you are in good air but wind shifts are saying that air is being pulled in a different direction, then be on alert. Your thermal may win, but it may lose. The first guy to recognize what just happened may be the guy to happily readjust and smile as his foes do a few more circles in decaying air and then land out, or at least land early.

Some images of my drift car ......Continue Reading

Some images of the New Quick. Mega 16/15/3 motor, 40 amp generic ESC....Continue Reading

Using an old 850 mAh 3s lipo and a mega 16/15/3. Great looking and awesome flying sports plane. Need bigger / better battery to push it to its limits and make it a true pylon racer.

El Dorado
10/08/2011
First contest in the open class. Finished fifth.

Poker was brutal for everyone. After a couple of short flights, I called 2:00. Never made it.

Last flight of the day was the all up last down. I out flew everyone in the group and was low coming back to base. Clay screamed "come back and land in". Could have made it, but saw a bump on the way and Jun said "make a turn" . Guess what? I made the turn and landed out ! An in landing in that flight would have meant an extra 200 or so points pushing me up to fourth place.

Still it was a good effort as I nailed three perfect rounds and finished above 90%.

Updated score card below (original one missed my 1000 point sixth round score)

Twister 2 DLG Launch Height 177 ft.mp4 (0 min 22 sec)

AUW 272 g (9.59 oz)
Date 10.02.2011
Wind 0 to 8 mph (approx)
Ht 53.95 m (177 ft)

Nice upgrade from my Taboo XT which I was launching 135 ~ 145 ft. Going vertical I was getting 160, and going up at approx 70~80 degree angle 170+.

Did not want to use trim covering, so airbrushed some black acrylic color on the bottom of the wing repair area. I then airbrushed multiple coats of gloss clear, but that didn't have the desired result. It required two heavy coats of clear gloss using a brush. Looks pretty decent now....Continue Reading

My favorite picture from the international

El Dorado 8/13/2011

Got a couple of 1000 rounds and fulfilled my goal of scoring above 90% against quality opposition. Last two rounds totally sucked. Reinforced the concept that air reading is everything in F3K.

No more sportsman for me. I compete in the open class now.

Brand new stuff

Airplane/Sailplane version.

Matt had two bad rounds. Unfortunately you are allowed only one dropped round in the contest. Sean took the win because of his consistent good flying. Good news is that I got my first perfect score in a contest and I expect myself to break the 90 percentile mark soon.

El Dorado 7/9/2011

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1466220

Great learning experience. Need to work on my turn-arounds. Had plenty of time in the ladder task (my fav) but missed it by a second. I was launching well, but not consistently. That needs work as well.

Finally the Blaster works best with a one ounce ballast. It also needs to be flown fast.